The Quinnipiac Bobcats women’s basketball team (23-3, 15-0 MAAC) celebrated their senior night with an 88-85 overtime win over the Canisius Golden Griffins (8-17, 6-10 MAAC).
The deep ball was falling early for both teams, and it continued to fall all game. Canisius shot particularly well, but they weren’t shooting much. Canisius turned the ball over 13 times in the first half, but Quinnipiac wasn’t able to capitalize.
“We turned them over right out of the gate,” Quinnipiac head coach Tricia Fabbri said. “But we weren’t able to go down and capitalize, and get up on them and stay up on them.”
Canisius continued to shoot the ball well as the game went on, but in the second half they were taking care of the ball. The Golden Griffins were shooting 67% halfway through the second half and it propelled them to their first lead of the game with eight minutes to play.
Neither team could stop the other from scoring, and neither team had any rhythm defensively. Canisius could not miss, and Quinnipiac was unable to get any defensive stops.
With just over a minute to go, the Bobcats were down 3, and in danger of losing their 12-game winning streak, and their first game at home since February of last year.
But Quinnipiac senior Nikoline Ostergaard wasn’t going to surrender on her senior night. She took it strong to the paint to make it a one-point game with just under a minute to play. But Crystal Porter got those two points back for Canisius off of an inbounds play with 15 seconds left to get the lead back to three.
Quinnipiac’s senior point guard “Boo” Abshire stormed down the court and left the ball behind her for senior Jasmine Martin. Without hesitation, Martin pulled the trigger from long range and buried the three to tie the game. Canisius was unable to score in the final seconds, and regulation ended with in a tie at 77.
Despite the defensive absence for much of the second half, both teams were playing hard on both ends in overtime. Both sides struggled to score at first, but when they did score, they traded baskets. Neither team could pull away; with 45 seconds left in overtime the score was knotted at 85.
Ostergaard knocked down a pair of free throws to give the Bobcats a slight edge heading into the final seconds. The Golden Griffins got a good look at the rim, but couldn’t convert and sent the Bobcats back to the line with 10 seconds to play.
Quinnipiac converted on one of two free throws to extend the lead to three. Kayla Hoohuli got one last look at the basket to try and spoil Quinnipiac’s senior night, but she came up just shy.
This was the first time that the Bobcats haven’t won by double digits in the last nine games, but the team sees this close win as a good thing.
“Not every game is going to be a huge win,” grad student Val Driscoll said. “It lets us know that we have to keep fighting no matter what’s going on in the game.”
Abshire, who hasn’t committed a turnover in over 100 minutes of game-time, agreed with Driscoll.
“I think it’s really good for us to have this game,” Abshire said. “It definitely puts it into perspective that we’re not invincible.”
Quinnipiac will look to extend their 13-game winning streak on Thursday when they host Saint Peter’s for their final home game of the regular season.
